AIG Bonus Snafu: Boomeranging Into the Faces of Democrats?

The AIG bailout and bonus snafu has the feel of a keystone cops caper.

No wonder the Chinese fear for the investments they hold in the United States.

Oversight of financial institutions? Next to zero.

Public confidence in the Treasury, the Fed and Congress? Heading downward.

The President? He is still defending Tim Geithner which I see as a losing horse. The best politicial advice I could give to this president is this: fire the Treasury Secretary now and at least you look like you are doing something.

“The fact is that the bill the president signed, which protected the AIG bonuses and others, was written behind closed doors by Democratic leaders of the House and Senate. There was no transparency,” said Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

The more the public sees of Barney Frank and his House Committee on Financial Services the more they’ll lose confidence in their entire government.

The hearings featuring AIG chairman Edward Liddy — who came out of retirement and is working for $1.00 a year to clean up the AIG side of this mess — are showing how mean spirited and just simply stupid our “lawmakers” are.

These are the same guys that failed to read the “stimulus” but voted for it….

The Fed?

The dumped a bunch of dollars into the system on March 18 and what happened? Oil went up and the dollar went down.

AIG’s Liddy looks credible and as if he is doing his best to make this right.

Mr. Liddy disclosed that the Federal Reserve — which sits on A.I.G.’s board — was informed of the bonus payouts and that Mr. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, had been consulted all along.

The A.I.G. executive said no attempt was made to hide the bonuses, no effort to conceal….

The committee members look, well, like self-righteous grandstanders.

Expect to see Obama regret his “outrage” at the AIG bonuses: it looks like many members of the government knew about them long before they were paid and some “lawmakers” and others took positive actions to make sure the bonus provisions in the AIG contracts were allowed to stand….even after the federal bailout amd “takeover” was well under way….

The discussions of suicides and death threats are way out of line, over the line and distasteful.

Much of this AIG bonus caper looks as if it was caused by the congress; with help from the Fed and the Treasury Department, perhaps….

I’m calling this Obama-Gate because it has the feel of Watergate in fast forward and without the stealth of a long coverup….yet….The president will survive this certainly but his stature will be diminished. Some government officials could and should lose their jobs. And the Republicans will get some new life, mojo or whatever. This is actually a badly needed dose of Viagra for Republians and a real gift from the Obama Democrats….

Some congressional staffers are telling us the president knew about the bonuses last week and maybe before….